This is the time of year when The Choice blog reaches out to more than 100 colleges across a broad spectrum — public and private, elite and (perhaps) more welcoming — to sketch a portrait of this year’s full application cycle, including early and regular submissions.

The more than 40 colleges and universities that have thus far responded to our queries (as depicted in the running tally above) are hardly a representative sample of the nation’s more than 2,000 four-year institutions of higher education. So we will save you the trouble of telling us the list isn’t comprehensive.

And yet, to those students who applied to these and other universities this year, perhaps these preliminary statistics begin to provide a bit of a rough sense of the relative dimensions of the pools in which you’ve chosen to dive — if not necessarily definitive reasons why one particular college got hot, and another cooled down. And yet, the institutions themselves, at least, have their theories, and in some cases we do, too.

At the University of California, Berkeley, applications are up nearly 17 percent over a year ago — a “notable increase” that was mirrored at other campuses in the U.C. system, says Janet Gilmore, a Berkeley spokeswoman. The relatively low cost of a public education in California, even with steep, state-mandated hikes in tuition in recent years, is likely a factor. (And yet, the university did not announce until after its Nov. 30 application deadline that it would, as my Times colleague Jennifer Medina wrote at the time, “offer far more financial aid to middle-class students starting next fall, with families earning up to $140,000 a year expected to contribute no more than 15 percent of their annual income.”)

Cost also appeared to be on the minds of applicants to Babson College in Boston, where applications are up more than 8 percent over a year ago. “Families are looking more at the aspect of ‘value,’ and not solely at the sticker price,” Grant M. Gosselin, dean of undergraduate admissions, wrote in an e-mail. “Families are asking more questions about four-year graduation rates (as opposed to five- and six-year rates), employment placement rates upon graduation, and long-term economic potential.”

And what of those that saw a drop in applications?

For Columbia University, which saw a nearly 9 percent drop in undergraduate applications from last year, one culprit is the 33 percent increase in submissions in 2011, when compared to 2010. What helped cause last year’s upward swing? It was the first year that Columbia agreed to accept the Common Application, the universal form accepted by more than 450 colleges and universities. (The University of Virginia saw a similar jump in applications this year — nearly 18 percent — after restoring an early admission program, after a four-year hiatus.)

And sometimes, it is worth pointing out to the current college applicants in our readership (and those who will follow them), it’s not necessarily clear what is behind a particular application trend.

Colleges that wish to have their preliminary data considered for inclusion in the chart above should e-mail it, following the same format, to Dan Slotnik’s attention at thechoicenyt@gmail.com. Meanwhile, we welcome your comments, as always, using the box below.

Correction: January 23, 2012An earlier version of this post cited the announcement of a program to provide tuition relief to middle class students as a possible factor in the rise in applications at the University of California, Berkeley. That program was announced after the university's Nov. 30 deadline for regular applications. The earlier post, and the accompanying chart, also reported, erroneously, that Middlebury College had a 4.56 percent drop in applications; in fact, its applications increased by that percentage.

I believe the information listed for Smith College is incorrect. Smith had 4,128 applications last year. The
chart shows an increase of 88 applications based on application numbers of 2779 over last year of 2691. If the percentage increase of application number is accurate of 3.27%, based upon the correct application numbers for 2011 of 4,128 would indicate 2012 applications at 4,263.
Am I correct?

I’m a Grinnell alum (early ’80s) who is also wondering, what’s going on there? I know it’s a great school and all, but 52% in one year? My first guess is that it’s because their endowment, which is huge for any college and jaw-droppingly astronomical for such a small one, allows them to hand out a lot more financial aid than other schools. That’s been true for decades, but in the current economy, maybe it’s attracting dramatically more applicants. Anyone have the real scoop?

What’s going on at Grinnell? You completely ignored them!!! The ACM schools ARE very good colleges (I went to Knox, in Illinois, which is another ACM school) but did you call Grinnell to find out why their applications DOUBLED compared to 2011? That’s the real story here. You need to do some more shoe-leather reporting, a lot more.

Grinnell: I have repeatedly seen it listed in recent articles as one of the schools which provides high amounts of fnancial aid. And my personal knowledge bears that out. A girl I know is paying one tenth to go there then she would at our state flagship.

Grinnell’s percentage increase isn’t quite so startling when you see that it’s gone from a little less than 3000 applicants to a little more than 4000 applicants, With such relatively small numbers, goosing the pool via a fairly aggressive recruitment campaign isn’t that much of a reach

“What’s going on at Grinnell?”
A quick look and you get at least part of the answer. Either 2010 was a bad year OR something happened with their record keeping and a bunch of 2010 applicants got counted in the 2011 tally.

From 2006 through 2009, Grinnell averaged about 3,600 applications. Then they dipped down to 2,900 in 2010 and back up to 4,500 in 2011, for a two-year average of 3,700.

As to Berkeley and UCLA, the budget crisis has made the UC System much more amenable to out-of-state applicants, with a corresponding increase in their acceptance rate, because those students pay around $20,000 more per year. Both schools have excellent reputations, and out-of-state applicants see an opening. When my son and I visited Berkeley last fall, the admissions officer at the info session stated that, last year, the Berkeley in-state acceptance rate was in the low 20%s and the out-of-state acceptance rate was in the high 30%s, a very significant disparity.

The 2010-11 school year was highlighted by many changes including the completion of a brand new athletic and aquatic facility. Also we had a new president begin his tenure and he has madelyn great changes. Some of these factors may have influenced the large increase in applicants. Plus Grinnell has a huge endowment which will continue to attract new students.

I can attest that the out of state students accepted at Berkeley are expected to be of even a higher academic caliber than in state applicants. UC Berkeley has never recruited on the east coast until last year. My UC Berkeley sophomore daughter’s friends from outside CA, are brilliant kids who chose Berkeley over other highly selective schools.

As for Grinnell, they are recruiting heavily in Asia. I would be interested in seeing the breakdown of U.S. vs international applicants.

Something I noticed about this list is that some of the numbers for the total apps for 2011 here are different from those posted in the 2011 list that was published last year. For example, Amherst had 8,462 apps last year in this list, but it had 8,432 according to the older list. Is there a reason for these discrepancies?

As for Grinnell’s applicants:
Each region of the country showed a 20 percent or greater increase in applications, resulting in 1,000 more domestic applicants. In Iowa, applications are up 30 percent, and Illinois showed a 50 percent increase. The Western region more than doubled its internal goal, including a 96 percent increase from California.
They applications from more than 100 other countries.
The pool shows strong diversity, with nearly one-quarter of the applications from students of color. The number of applicants of color is double that of previous years.
Despite the dramatic surge in the number of applicants, SAT and ACT scores stayed high—almost exactly even with past years.

While still not Evanston, Hyde Park has made vast strides in saftey in the last 2 decades, due mainly to the University’s own devices. While still not as safe as NU, I think the trend over the next 20 years should put it close if not on par with the safety of Evanston. One could debate the tactics and community impact of the way U of C does it, but the end result has been a contributing factor to increased applications, albeit small.

Additionally U of C has it a lot easier in gaining applicants given their already lower baseline applicants (21K vs. 32K for NW). That said it’s exciting to see Chicago with 2 schools that are finally recognized as truly elite institutions globally and not just within the Midwest or academic communities.

UVA and Berkeley applications up? Gee it couldn’t have anything to do with the movement to state schools due to costs, and these two being the best undergrad state schools, could it? There were only going to be so many people who could pay for Middlebury. It’s a welcome trend. I look forward to the day when 10-15 of the top 25 schools are publics, instead of just these two every year.